Student Data Tracking

I read an article recently that compared formative assessments to a fitness tracker.  I loved this analogy because many of us can relate.  We love the accountability of a fitness tracker and also enjoy checking in to see how we are doing on our fitness goals.  They keep us on track! Formative assessments in the classroom are the same!  They keep both teachers and students accountable and allow us to “check in” and see how we are doing.

Teachers use formative assessments to see students’ progress toward a learning goal.  But, how are students using this data?  Are students aware of their progress?  It comes as no surprise that research shows having students track their own progress toward a learning goal is a highly effective instructional strategy.  Students take ownership of their own learning data and track it.  They are in control of their learning and see where they are at and where they need to be.  

There are several options for teachers to use as students track their data.  Maybe you can try one of these examples?  Maybe you have one of your own?  Regardless of what form you use, the learning is the outcome.  

Student Progress Chart

Student Standard Tracker

Personal Learning Goal

Let’s help students take on the role of becoming their own “learning tracker”!

Using Google Forms for Assessment

The Google for Education team rolled out several new updates and features this summer that could be beneficial in your classroom. Several of the updates were for Google Classroom, but one of my favorites is in the often overlooked Google Forms.

The new and improved Forms allows users to not only easily add pictures and graphics into their forms, but also allows you to create auto-graded quizzes for multiple choice, checkbox, or dropdown questions. You can include all other types of questions, but users still can't assign a score to short answer questions on the form unless using an add on like Flubaroo. Hopefully, this option will be coming soon.

Even if you are giving a formative assessment with 3 questions that could be multiple choice and the 4th a short answer, the auto-grading feature is still a hefty time-saver, leaving you with only 1 question to manually grade. This can then allow you to spend more time using the data to decide where to go next in your instruction. Not to mention, since the answers can feed directly into a Google Sheet, it is now easy to sort students into groups for reteaching or extension based on their answers.

One of the biggest benefits of using Forms for assessments is the ability to gather all of the student answer data on one spreadsheet. You still have the ability to view individual student data and group analytics on the response tab, but the spreadsheet summary is the most gradebook-friendly.

Another benefit of using Forms is the integration with other Google for Education products like Classroom and Drive. If you are a Classroom user, Forms can be added as assignments with 1 click. If you are not a Classroom user, you can still use the traditional link or email method to send out the live form. Either way, all the results come right back to your Drive.

I have put together a couple of screencasts to show the new features as well as walk you through using forms to set up a quiz. The first one is general, while the second one also shows how to integrate with Google Classroom as an assignment.

New Resource: Hidden Worlds of the National Parks

This is blog post is going to be short and sweet, but it's just cool, so I wanted to share!

The US National Park Service turned 100 on August 24. In celebration of this milestone, the Park Service has released a new site, The Hidden Worlds of the National Parks, which takes students on virtual reality trips to 5 of the national parks.

As you click on each of the locations on the site, you are taken to 360 degree interactive videos with a local park ranger providing audio as your guide. You can then click through to several different views at the park as well as some additional video and informative interactions.

This experience will be engaging for pretty much any age level, but for younger elementary students, the teacher might want to navigate through the site as a class since it is easy to click on a link and then lose track of where you started.

Even if you decide not to share with a class, this is just a fun site for students (or even yourself)!